Topics

Jun

Cultural Heritage: Listening to Ireland

by Joyce McGreevy on June 1, 2016

Sunrise in Ireland, where an audio postcard might include a recording of birdsong. Image © Joyce McGreevy

While I’m sleepless in Chicago, dawn arrives in Ireland. I can almost hear the birdsong:
© Joyce McGreevy

Audio Postcards from Galway

Travel articles emphasize the visual: the view from the room, the lay of the land, the unique color palette of a place.

reland offers spectacular scenery, but to appreciate Irish cultural heritage, you also need to listen. © Joyce McGreevy

Ireland is visually dazzling, but to appreciate its cultural heritage, you also need to listen.
© Joyce McGreevy

Longing to Listen In

My favorite example of the visual is a webcam overlooking a pedestrianized street in Galway, Ireland. The view is so intimate that, as a former resident, I’ve recognized friends among the passersby. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 3 Comments

Art of Travel/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Ireland

May

The Travel Sketchbook

by Eva Boynton on May 23, 2016

A hand holding a travel sketchbook on a hike, illustrating that many an aha moment waits inside. (image © Kolby Kirk).

Sketchbook in chest pocket, Kolby Kirk is always ready to draw on the trail.
© Kolby Kirk

There’s an Aha Moment on Every Page!

For me, it’s impossible to start a trip without this one essential item: my travel sketchbook. It is my eyes, my memory, my inquisitive mind on paper. Together we take on the world.

It is in the act of drawing that I learn to look, listen, perceive, and remember. In fact, I have not experienced a place fully unless I have sketched it.

Drawing of a jungle collection and inside of a house, showing an aha moment within a travel sketchbook (image © Eva Boynton).

The Jungle Collection: taking a moment to record and remember.
© Eva Boynton Read more...

Eva Boynton 6 Comments

Art of Travel/Life Lessons/Worldwide Sites

Apr

Travel Stories: Good Thing We Took the Wrong Train

by Joyce McGreevy on April 26, 2016

A view from a flight departing Boston might feature in travel stories about travel mishaps that turn out just fine. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Travel Mishaps, Mosaics, and Memories

If two trains travel toward the same station at different times . . . Remember those math questions from school? Call them my least favorite travel stories.

I recall Mrs. Newton asking our fourth grade class to brainstorm solutions. As the collective desperation mounted, I burst out with “Agh! Stop the trains!”

Okay, so not a mathematician.

Yet those equations proved instructive. As emblems of bewilderment in motion, they offered a preview of real-life travel problems. Read more...

Joyce McGreevy 1 Comment

Art of Travel/France/Ireland/Italy

World Views: